ABC bowls over competish

Morning Ratings Flash - Rick Kissell

The conclusion of college football’s Fiesta Bowl and the first half of the Sugar Bowl propelled ABC to a primetime ratings victory Monday night. CBS held up well with repeats of its regular series, and NBC was competitive with its all-original lineup.

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, the Fiesta matchup between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish delivered a strong 7.4 rating/17 share in adults 18-49 and nearly 22 million viewers overall on ABC’s affils from 8 to 9 p.m., easily winning the hour. In Nielsen’s metered-market household ratings, the full game’s 13.6 rating/22 share was up 5% in rating from last year’s comparable Rose Bowl contest between Texas and Michigan (13.0/23).

ABC’s affils also led from 9 to 11 with the Sugar Bowl game between the West Virginia Mountaineers and the Georgia Bulldogs, which averaged a 5.0/12 in adults 18-49 and 14.3 million viewers overall.

Runner-up CBS received solid repeat scores from “CSI: Miami” (4.5/11 in 18-49, 13.7 million viewers overall) as well as comedies “Two and a Half Men” (4.7/11 in 18-49, 14.0 million viewers overall), “Out of Practice” (3.8/8 in 18-49, 10.6 million viewers overall), “How I Met Your Mother” (3.5/8 in 18-49, 9.7 million viewers overall) and “King of Queens” (3.3/8 in 18-49, 9.9 million viewers overall).

NBC got off to a slow start with an original “Surface” (2.7/6 in 18-49, 8.6 million viewers overall), which had to face the end of the Fiesta Bowl, but picked up with “Las Vegas” (4.0/9 in 18-49, 11.5 million viewers overall) and “Medium” (4.3/10 in 18-49, 12.1 million viewers overall).

Fox was paced by a repeat of “House” at 9 (2.7/6 in 18-49, 7.1 million viewers overall).

Note: Nielsen has begun including same-day DVR playback into its preliminary national report every morning. Numbers cited now represent live viewing plus same-day playback.